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| Image by Christopher Katsarov Luna |
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A GREETING
I want to do your will, my God.
Your Instruction is deep within me.
(Psalm 40:8 CEB)
A READING
The wolf will live with the lamb,
and the leopard will lie down with the young goat;
the calf and the young lion will feed together,
and a little child will lead them.
The cow and the bear will graze.
Their young will lie down together,
and a lion will eat straw like an ox.
(Isaiah 11:6-7 CEB)
MUSIC
You may wish to try playing this music and the video below at the same time.
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
You bring on the darkness and it is night,
when every forest animal prowls.
(Psalm 104:20 CEB)
A POEM
Come spring, female caribou separate themselves
from their male offspring since colts
aren’t permitted in the calving grounds.
If intimidation and charging fail, a cow
will sprint nocturnal across a stretch of ice,
careful not to leave tracks.
- from "Migration is Disciplined Wanderlust,"
found in Caribou Run, a collection of poems by Richard Kelly Kemick
VERSE OF THE DAY
Let your compassion come to me so I can live again.
(Psalm 119:77a CEB)
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| Near Thunder Bay, Ontario. Image by Sharon Mollerus |
From Manitoulin Island, moving upstream through St. Mary River, the international border continues to live in the water, including the very narrow portions of the St. Mary as it passes through Sault Ste. Marie. Once into Lake Superior, the international border moves at sharp angles, almost directly related to its swift counter-clockwise currents.
At the beginning of last week we visited the horses of Sable Island. Today, we meet the caribou of Michipicoten and the Slate Islands off the northeastern and northern parts of Superior. Once the home of hundreds of woodland caribou, their numbers have severely diminished over the past decade in direct relationship to the presence of wolves who, in the very cold winter of 2014 when the lake froze, arrived over the ice bridge on both island systems. Within two years, there were less than sixty remaining caribou on the Slate Islands, and by some counts eventually only two.
Both of these large islands (the Slate Islands are technically an archipelgo) have experienced the problem of wolves. Over the past seven years, through the concerted efforts of the Biigtigong Nishnaabeg and Michipicoten First Nations, working with conservationists, the caribou have several times been moved from one island to another by helicoptor to help restore their numbers. It has had modest success. First, the wolves left the Slate Islands, then they left Michipicoten. The caribou are being slowly returned to their native islands in sustainable numbers. There is a sense that the numbers are returning. However, all it takes is a bad winter to set the problem in motion again. Woodland caribou are very much at risk of extinction.
In today’s reading from Isaiah, the image associated with the arrival of a promised messiah is one where predatory animals lose their instinct for killing and lie in peace with one another. Human beings can attempt to control the predation by wolves of caribou, but ultimately nature will do what it does. Climate change, leading to the disappearance of suitable habitat for the caribou, is already massively decimating their numbers, even on the mainland. While helicoptoring the animals from one place to another is helping to stave off extinction, what are the more long-lasting ways in which we can help save these majectic animals, through our own care and conservation of our world? How can we save them from ourselves as much as the wolves?
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A VISUAL CARIBOU STORY
Enjoy this group of caribou as they cross a river, shot in the Yukon Territory on the Firth River. Note that audio has been intentionally muted. You might try playing today's music and this video at the same time.
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Resources in today's devotion:
Scripture passages are taken from The Common English Bible.
The most recent and the most helpful overview of the state of the caribou on the Slate Islands,
can be found here.
Richard Kelly Kemick is a Canadian poet and journalist. Find out more about him here.
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LC† Streams of Living Justice is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work.
Thank you and peace be with you!